At teaching hospitals in Minnesota, residents are an integral part of the care team. Often, a patient will have three physicians overseeing his or her care at a teaching hospital (An intern, senior resident, and staff physician). This team structures provides both a tremendous educational model and a system of checks to ensure that every detail is discussed. Since the beginning of my residency, I’ve been amazed at the extraordinary level of attention each patient receives through this care model and the impressive outcomes because of such care.

My residency training has already provided me with educational and service opportunities that I could not have imagined. It is truly shaping the doctor that I will be for the rest of my career. The mentors I’ve had at the various sites we rotate through have been tremendous educators and physicians. Not only do they teach the science of medicine, but the art of medicine. It is these mentors who are at the heart of medical education in Minnesota and are able to do what they do because of Graduate Medical Education support.

As a Med/Peds resident physician, I know that GME supports innovative training models and new curriculum in areas like quality improvement and ultrasound guided imaging. These programs attract bright young physicians who will be future health care leaders in our state. And when physicians train in Minnesota, they most often stay in Minnesota. Minnesota has been a national leader in both health care quality and cost. I think in large part, those statistics are a reflection of the robust physician training programs in our state.

I am originally from Fargo, North Dakota. I completed medical school at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and my undergraduate degree at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. I am a member of the Twin Cities Medical Society Policy Committee and an active member of the Minnesota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. I collaborate with other physician researchers at the University of Minnesota and at Mayo, studying medical students attitudes and knowledge of health policy issues. We have published our first paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine (Now JAMA Internal Medicine).

- Tyler Winkelman, Second year Internal Medicine & Pediatrics Resident at the University of Minnesota

As an emergency physician who has practiced at a high volume level 1 trauma center as a resident and a moderate volume community emergency department now, I am accustomed to practicing in a rushed environment that will only get more crunched for time in the future. In this environment, when present, residents are the physicians that are able to be the front line providers for many patients and are often able to spend significantly more time at the bedside increasing the likelihood that patients’ needs are satisfactorily met, the correct diagnosis is uncovered and appropriate treatment is provided. In addition, graduate medical education programs are on the forefront of advancing medical knowledge through research and academic study. Graduates then disperse new knowledge and cutting edge procedures to the whole of the medical community.

Without strong graduate medical education programs in the state, the community at large assumes the risk of practicing outdated and substandard medicine.

I was born and raised in Bloomington, I stayed in the Twin Cities for my undergraduate education at Augsburg College. It was during undergraduate studies that I became interested in medicine. After a short time in Colorado after Augsburg I started my medical training at Dartmouth Medical School (now Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth) in 2004 and graduated in 2008. At that time I returned to the Twin Cities for my Emergency Medicine Residency at Regions Hospital through HealthPartners GME. Following residency I started working with HealthEast, primarily at St. Johns Hospital and as of May will be assuming the role of Site Medical Director at the St. Johns Emergency Department.

I am married and have three children. My wife is a veterinarian, and as such we have several pets at our home in Lakeville. I am the first in my family with a career in medicine, in fact, the first to complete an undergraduate degree.

Graduate medical education is essential to the fabric of Minnesota health care for so many reasons. To begin, residents and fellows from the backbone of care delivery at many of the state’s most prestigious medical facilities. These advanced trainees form the front line of care throughout the state, from Rochester to the Range. In the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities, it is difficult to get through a hospital stay without being seen by a current resident or fellow in some program supported by graduate medical education. Furthermore, I would wager that it is impossible to be hospitalized in the Twin Cities area without seeing a practitioner who trained under the MMCGME.

I am currently a Critical Care Medicine specialist at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. While I grew up in Illinois and began medical school at the Southern Illinois University, I transferred to the University of Minnesota School of Medicine during my third year and graduated from the U in 2005. I completed a Transitional Year, Internal Medicine residency, and Critical Care Medicine fellowship all at Hennepin County Medical Center from 2005-2010. I currently reside in Maple Grove and have been at Mercy for over 2 years.

Mercy Hospital offers a full cadre of clinical services supporting our patients from birth through the final stages of life and all steps between. Our suburban hospital offers experts in every field of medicine in large part because we are able to retain the best and the brightest physicians trained right here through graduate medical education programs at HCMC, the University of Minnesota, Abbott Northwestern, the Mayo Clinic, and other training sites in our own state. Many of these physicians were born and raised here in Minnesota, attended medical school here, and continued their education at a graduate medical education program here in Minnesota. It is easy to establish roots in the community where you train, particularly given that residency and fellowship can last for up to 7 or 8 years.

I am a general pediatrician practicing in Hutchinson, Minnesota. I was born and raised in Hutchinson, so when the opportunity arose to practice here, I was eager to return. I did my undergraduate education at Iowa State University majoring in psychology and minoring in biology. I chose to attend the University of Minnesota - Duluth campus for my first two years of medical education. Having grown up in a smaller community, I felt more comfortable with the smaller class size and emphasis on rural primary care.

At the Duluth campus, we were very well known by our professors and very close to our fellow classmates. There was an opportunity to engage in patient care early on in our studies. I met my husband there and together we transferred to the Twin Cities campus in the spring of 2004 to complete the last two years of medical school. The University of Minnesota Medical School does a phenomenal job in creating new physicians. There is a tradition of exceptional medical care and innovation. So when it came time to choose a residency program, I felt that the University’s pediatrics program was for me. I finished my three years of pediatric residency in 2009, and felt that it gave me a solid foundation for general pediatric practice. I chose to stay an extra year with the program as chief resident. I take pride in the fact that I graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and the University of Minnesota Pediatrics Residency Program. Medical education in Minnesota is respected and continues to produce outstanding physicians.